I haven’t been able to see continuous controllers (Expression, Modulation, etc.) written into a controller lane of the MIDI note editor for a selected track.
But in the MIDI Remote tab, the correct faders move when I move the faders on my remote device (Android tablet running Touch OSC). I have verified that the remote is sending the correct controller values ( Modulation-1 and Expression-11).
Am I missing a step somewhere?
Here’s my configuration:
In Remote Mapping Assistant I have each fader set to “Write Automation (Instrument | Selected Track”.
In Studio Setup->Midi Port Setup the remote device is there and active but when I click the Monitor icon followed by the Capture button, no data is shown. (It works for regular MIDI input from a keyboard, tho.)
(The ‘MIDI Remote’ icon in the above screenshot just lists the name of the remote, nothing interesting there.)
In MIDI->Midi Controller Automation Setup, the global destination is set to “MIDI Part”. Automation merge mode is set to “Replace 2 - last value continues”. Though I also tried setting the destination to ‘Automation Track’.
To be clear, these automation lanes are where I’m trying to see the controllers (though I’ve also checked in the selected track by enabling ‘Show Automation’).
Of course, the Write Automation button is selected on that track.
One clue: In the Remote MIDI tab of the lower pane, the “Last Touched Control” changes correctly as I move different faders on the remote; but the ‘Value’ indicator always says “off”. I checked the output of my remote MIDI device using a separate application and it’s sending correct channel, control, and data bytes.
I’m sorry, I don’t understand your use case. Maybe some screenshots might help.
Which parameter has been assigned to the gien control?
You don’t need to enable the Monitor button. There is no Capture button. Do you mean the Write Automation button? This has to be enabled. The automation track doesn’t have to show up immediately once you start to write the automation. To make sure, the automation track appears immediately, enable the Reveal Parameter on Write option in the Automation Panel > Settings, please.
Do you mean MIDI > CC Automation Setup? This is relevant only for MIDI data. You choose, if you want to write them to the MIDI Part or to the Automation Track. This has nothing to do with automating parameters like Volume, Pan, Plug-in Parameters. Again, it’s important to know, what parameter do you want to control, please?
@Martin.Jirsak
Thanks for the reply. I’ve added several screenshots to the question above. You’re right, it would be hard to follow without some pictures.
Re: your specific questions, the parameters assigned to the faders are Modulation (1), Expression (11), vibrato(21 for BBCSO) and pan(15 for BBCSO).
The Capture button only appears in a separate window after you click the Monitor icon (which appears in Studio Setup). It doesn’t enable anything, it’s just a handy tool for verifying that MIDI input is happening.
The Return Parameter On Write option in Automation Panel->Settings was already checked when I looked.
[1] The Monitor in MIDI Port Setup doesn’t display anything if this MIDI port is used for a MIDI Remote Controller.
[2] For me, it’s not entirely clear what is supposed to be achieved. Should the CC values 1 and 11 be recorded on the MIDI controller lanes of an Instrument Track?
Then, firstly, this cannot work because the defined CCs 1 + 11 are exclusively used for the communication between the hardware and the MRC, not for controlling the VSTi.
Secondly, the Cubase functions Selected Track > Instrument > Read (Write) Automation are binary (on/off), not continuous. They are intended to switch the Automation Read and Write states for the Instrument on the selected track on and off, analogous to controlling the Automation R/W on/off for Tracks. However, this assumes that the VSTi can process these commands.
Yes, it’s desired that the CC values be recorded on the controller lanes. This is to allow external device fader input rather than drawing in curves.
If I understand you correctly, Selected Track > Instrument > Read (Write) Automation should be on, just to enable Writing globally.
So if all this doesn’t do it, how does one get the VSTi to process CC’s? Seems like an obvious and commonly used functionality that would be the default in Cubase, more so than laboriously drawing in continuous values. In the Cakewalk DAW, it “just works”.
In Cubase, just route the MIDI Input where your Controller is connected to the Instrument Track and write/record the Controller data. Other than Automation (where Write has to be activated), MIDI CC requires activated Record Mode. The destination can be set in CC Automation Setup…, MIDI CC data can be converted into automation data.
Ah, of course. I figured it would be something simple like this. Seems like it should work. But still no joy. Write is enabled. Record is enabled. I’ve set the destination to both Automation and MIDI Part in separate tests.
My MIDI Remote device is coming in on USB, and keyboard input via a MIDI adapter, so they show up as different inputs. I set the track input to the remote device, any channel. The remote faders still move the indicators in the MIDI Remote lower pane, as before, so data is happening, just not getting to the controller lanes or to an automation track.
I also tried going to Studio Setup->Midi Port Setup and setting the “In All MIDI” checkbox, which I thought might merge the two input streams, but it didn’t work.
Not to my knowledge. The only things appearing in the Remote MIDI tab are the faders that I defined, each of which responds when the remote device faders are moved. Unless there’s somewhere else where different assignments were made by default?
If you define a certain MIDI CC (e.g. 1) from a certain MIDI port (e.g. MIDI function) to control a controller object (e.g. Fader) in a MRC, you can no longer use the same CC from the same port in a track for recording or VSTi control. Cubase excludes that - either the one or the other.
So since I have defined CC’s for faders, and the faders in the MIDI Remote tab respond, by definition this must be the only CC definition operating.
As a check to see if the CC’s are getting to the track, I opened a MIDI Monitor as a MIDI Insert on the track. And when I set the track input to the MIDI Adapter and play the external keyboard, data displays in the monitor. Not so when the track input is set to the USB Midi (MIDI Remote device).
So somehow the CC data makes it to the MIDI Remote tab features, but not any further to tracks.
Also, I went into Studio Setup->Midi Port Setup and clicked the checkbox for ‘In All MIDI’ to see if the MIDI Remote stream would be merged with other incoming MIDI and thus be recognized all the way to the tracks. No change.
Not quite as bad, but you have to decide for each element on each of your hardware controllers whether you want to use it for a control element in an MRC or whether it should go directly into Cubase for a different purpose, e.g. recording on a track.
I guess I don’t understand what a MRC is. I have only one piece of external hardware, this Android tablet - other than a barebones keyboard with no CC buttons or functions of any kind - and the only thing the tablet runs is TouchOSC and the only thing TouchOSC has is four faders. So its sole purpose in life is to wiggle four faders in Cubase. So no conflict of interest as far as hardware is concerned. It’s going directly into Cubase, nowhere else to go.
And just to repeat, a separate software monitor verifies that the tablet is sending flawless data.
In short, an MRC is a script that specifies which Cubase functions are triggered by certain MIDI CC data from certain input ports. There is also a graphical user interface that makes the whole thing more understandable.
If you only want to input 4 different ccs, I don’t think you need a midi remote. I would expect this to work if you just delete the entire midi remote and make sure that the the midi port is active in all midi. Btw are you using TouchOSC bridge on your main device?
It works! Not in real time, there’s a delay, but that’s ok.
No, not using TouchOSC Bridge, because on installation there’s a recommendation to skip it if you’re not sending MIDI over a network or converting OSC to MIDI. I have TouchOSC configured to send just MIDI from the get-go, and it’s via USB. I don’t know if Bonjour, which was originally installed along with TouchOSC Bridge on this machine, is actually being used. I hope not.
If you have any information that’s more in-depth than this I’d like to know.
I think Cubase should be much more explicit about the intended uses of MIDI Remote. I wondered why all the tutorials talked so much about buttons and toggle switches. Apparently MIDI Remote is meant only to control Cubase itself, as opposed to tracks.
Isn’t it? If you open the window to make an assignment to an element, you can have a pretty good view of what is really available.
Not exactly. You can always control all kind of parameters exposed by VSTs, instrument or effects, using the MR. Your case simply doesn’t need an MR to work, and it’s been this way for a long time fortunately
